In the first eight months (January to August) of 2022, Bangladesh continues to increase its exports of apparel to the United States, which remains its top export market.
According to the most recent data from the Commerce Department’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (Otexa), Bangladeshi apparel manufacturers shipped apparel goods worth $6.64 billion, up 53.54% from $4.32 billion in the same period of 2021.
Securing the third position, Bangladesh has a 9.42% share in the apparel market of the North American country.
However, the manufacturers in the country said that there is a gap of two months in publishing Otexa data and the global situation is one change due to economic turmoil, inflationary pressures, and other issues which led to a decline in orders which have been caused negative growth since September and may prolong to coming months.
In September, the apparel export of Bangladesh to its global destinations registered a negative growth of 7.52%, after a 13-month streak of positive growth.
However, according to the Otexa data, in the same period, the overall US apparel imports reached $69.27 billion, noting a 37.35% year-on-year rise, up from $50.43 billion in the January to August period of 2021.
The data also showed that the single-month apparel export earnings from the US in August grew to $928.56 million from $626.25 million in the same month last year.
However, the apparel export earnings of August fetched a robust comeback from that of July ($693.33 million), the lowest since March 2022.
According to the Otexa data, Bangladesh earned $755.94 million in January, $688.47 million in February, $1.03 billion in March, $820.52 million in April, $815 million in May, $906 million in June, and $693.22 million in July of this year.
According to the manufacturers, the purchase orders have declined significantly by nearly 30% in the last few months due to the ongoing geopolitical crisis, energy crisis, and global inflation.
Top brands like Walmart and GAP postponed their global orders due to overstocking their products, said manufacturers.
Leading players
According to the data, China and Vietnam occupied the first and the second highest positions respectively in the US market as of August 2022.
US apparel imports from China in the January-August period of 2022 experienced a growth of 37.17% to $15.55 billion from $11.33 billion in the same period of 2021, proclaiming the first position with a market share of 23.72%.
Vietnam exported apparel items worth $12.80 billion in January-August of 2022, fetching a growth of 33.62% from $9.58 billion in the same period of the past year, claiming a market share of 17.52% which left them at the second position.
India secured the fourth position by exporting apparel items worth $4.16 billion, registering a growth of 56.9% from $2.65 billion in the first eight months of 2022 with a market share of 5.68%%.
RMG imports of the US from Indonesia in the January-August of 2022 increased by 56.47% to $3.91 billion while the imports from Cambodia grew by 51.64% to $3.04 billion in the same period, which made them the fifth and sixth, with a market share of 5.54% and 4.41%, respectively.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said that these orders were placed earlier.
“We got a lot of orders earlier due to trade wars between China and the US, the Covid-19 lockdown and high production costs in Vietnam. But this year, we are affected by war and global inflation,” he said, adding that the work orders declined by 30% or more.
He also said that they should not only depend on the European or North American market, instead, they need to find new markets.
East Asia, the Middle East, India etc are big markets for apparel items and the impact of the geopolitical crisis is also lower there, Azim also said, adding that they have to enter these markets and growth must be maintained at any cost.
However, manufacturers fear that since the number of orders decreased, growth in September, October and November were also likely to be negative.
BGMEA Director Mohiuddin Rubel said that the upward trend might not sustain in the fourth quarter of 2022 due to inflation at a historical level, a rise in Fed rates, a downturn in economic growth than projections and an anticipated recession.
Moreover, unusual long summers may also affect the winter clothing range.
“However, we observed that Bangladesh’s total export maintained significant growth until August 2022, which means USA’s imports from Bangladesh might keep on a positive trend till September,” he added.
In 2021, Bangladesh exported apparel items worth $7.14 billion to the United States.